Nationality: United StatesExecutive summary: National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics

Military service: US Navy (1877-87)

William F. Durand studied the theory and operation of propeller hydraulics, and, later, propeller aerodynamics, and taught mechanical engineering at Cornell and Stanford. Among the nation's most respected academics of his time, Durand was a founding member and served for decades on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, forerunner of the present-day NASA. After his 1924 retirement from Stanford he oversaw the a comprehensive series of monographs on aerodynamics that was widely used as a resource in scientific circles, and wrote three of the papers himself. In his 80s, at the special request of Vannevar Bush, he chaired NACA's Special Committee on Jet Propulsion.